‘The White Wife Problem’: Sex,Race and the Contested Politics of Repatriation to Interwar British West Africa

Based on archival research in Ghana and Britain, this article documents the sustained but failed attempts of working‐class West African seamen to repatriate to the colonies with their European wives during the interwar years. Colonial authorities crafted policies to prevent these couples from making British West Africa home because they feared that the presence of European women living ‘in native fashion’ with their African husbands would destabilise colonial race relations. After discussing the origins of this policy in the context of the 1919 race riots that swept Britain's port cities, the article draws on the case of a West African man married to a German woman to illuminate how concerns about race, sex, gender, nationality and class informed the politics of repatriation to British West Africa during the interwar years.     

Book reviews

Negotiating Development. P. Healey, M. Purdue and F. Ennis, London: E&FN Spon, 1995, 212 pp, £29.95 hb, ISBN 0 419 19410 X

The Rise of the Rustbelt. P. Cooke (Ed.), London, UCL Press, 1995, i‐x+272 pp, £40.00 hb, ISBN 1 85728 420 8; £14.95 pb, ISBN 1 85728 419 4

Urban Change and Renewal: The Paradox of Place. P. Garrahan and P. Stewart (Eds), Aldershot: Avebury, 1994, viii+200 pp, £32.50 hb, ISBN 1 85628 610 X

Territorial Competition in an Integrating Europe. P. Cheshire and I. Gordon (Eds), Aldershot: Avebury, 1995, 317 pp, £40.00 hb, ISBN 1 85972 112 5

Reconstituting Rurality: Class, Community and Power in the Development Process. Jonathan Murdoch and Terry Marsden, London: UCL Press, 1994, xv + 256 pp. ISBN 1 85728 041 5 hb     

Grand Design on the Fringes of Empire: New Towns for British North America

There was an increasing elaboration of a town model introduced by British authorities to the new American colonies in the second half of the eighteenth century. The simplest versions, in Nova Scotia (from 1749), gave way to 'classic' Charlottetown (1768) and eventually to excesses in Ontario (ca 1790). The model and its elaboration are clarified, the circuitous route for the planning inspiration is traced, and an explanation is offered for the over-ambitious model bestowed on Ontario. Themes include late Renaissance ideas for new towns, the impact on colonial peripheries of a sophisticated imperial administration, 'landscape by committee,' and the diffusion of ideas.
Pendant la deuxième moitié du dix-huitième siècle, il y eut dans les nouvelles colonies américaines une elaboration croissante du modele urbain introduit par les autoritCs britanniques. Les expressions les plus simples de ce modirle, en Nouvelle Ecosse (de 1749), cédèrent au style « classique >> de Charlottetown (1768) et menirrent éventuellement aux excirs en Ontario (ca 1790). Nous clarifierons ce modele et son évolution; nous tracerons les multiples influences qui inspirerent cet urbanisme; et nous expliquerons le modele par trop ambitieux qui se manifesta en Ontario. Les themes de cet article incluent les idées sur les « new towns >> qui eurent cours vers la fin de la Renaissance; l'impact d'une administration impenale raffinee sur les périphéries coloniales; la fabrication « par comité>> du paysage urbain; et la diffusion des idtes.     

Book reviews

CHINA AND THE OVERSEAS CHINESE. A STUDY OF PEKING'S CHANGING POLICY, 1949–1970. Stephen FitzGerald. Cambridge University Press, 1972. 268 pp. £5.90.

CHINA'S WORLD: THE FOREIGN POLICY OF A DEVELOPING STATE. J. D. Simmonds. Australian National University Press, 1970. 0–7081–0694–3. 200 pp. $6.95.

THE CONVENTIONS OF CRISIS: A STUDY IN DIPLOMATIC MANAGEMENT. Coral Bell. Oxford University Press for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1971. 0–19–285054–7. 131 pp. $3.40 paper.

FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS: PAKISTAN 1962–1969. Herbert Feldmon. Oxford University Press, London, 1972. 0–19–215192–4. 340 pp. $17.10.

INDIAN REVOLUTIONARIES ABROAD. A. C. Bose. Bha Rati Bhawan, Patna, 1971. 268 pp. Rs. 30.00.

THE AUSTRALIAN‐NEW ZEALAND AGREEMENT 1944. Robin Kay (ed.). A. R. Shearer, Government Printer, Wellington, New Zealand, 1972. 297 pp. $NZ7.50.

PASSING FOR WHITE. A STUDY OF RACIAL ASSIMILATION IN A SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOL. Graham Watson. Tavistock, London, 1970. 422–75470–6. 130 pp. $2.70, Social Science paperback, $7.10 hard‐cover.

ABORIGINES AND SETTLERS: THE AUSTRALIAN EXPERIENCE (1788–1939). Henry Reynolds. Cassell, Melbourne, 1972. 422–75470–6. $3.75.

WORLD ARMAMENTS AND DISARMAMENT: SIPRI YEARBOOK 1972. Almqvist and Wiksell, for SIPRI (Stockhohn International Peace Research Institute), Stockholm 1972. 91–85114–12‐X. 611 pp. $US15.00.

THE PROBLEM OF CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE. Volume V: THE PREVENTION OF CBW. SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute). Almqvist & Wiksell, Stockholm and Humanities Press, New York, 1971. 287 pp. $13 hard cover.

IN THE MINDS OF MEN: UNESCO 1946–1971. Gian Franco Pompei and others. UNESCO, Paris, 1972. 319 pp. $3.35 paper.

PROBLEMS OF INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT POLICY. Paul Heller. New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, 1972. 50 pp.

BRAZIL: THE PEOPLE AND THE POWER. M. Arraes. Pelican Latin American Library. $1.35.